unharmed. >>> his vacation now over, president obama diving right back into the world of washington politics. in the next hour, the president is scheduled to speak about those automatic spending cuts, set to take place next friday unless congress tankes some sor of action. christine romans joins me to break down how we could potentially feel these cuts if something isn't done. good morning. >> good morning, carol. the first question is what is the sequester, this wonky, horrible budget washington word you keep hearing. it's a fancy word for budget cuts, forced budget cuts. you could also think of the sequester as the "or else." last year it was decided we had to get our budget deficit under control, democrats and republicans together, or else, or else we would have these draconian spending cuts start the beginning part of this year. they didn't get their budget act together and this is the or else, the big budget cuts that are automatically going to happen. it's really frustrating, carol, because this was never -- these were never supposed to happen. this was supposed to be somethin